More Than A Memory
by unightfog
Summary: Eliot had also accepted that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't forget the passionate hours that they had shared.What had happened between them was more than just a memory to him, it had been a glimpse of something that could have been great.


Notes: I've written this fic about a year ago and posted it at LJ and since I started posting at ff net, I decided to put this ficlet up here too! I am still struggling with the posting format here though *sighs*

Thank you so much to nebakanezer for being the most awesome beta e v e r! You did an awesome job! Thank you! *hugs*  
All mistakes are mine! I don't own Leverage.

The Jack...Daniels quote I kind of borrowed from a tweet of Christian Kane :-D

Enjoy!

Comments make my day!

The fic takes place between Season 1 and 2.

* * *

**More Than A Memory**

The last red golden beams of sunlight danced on the rippled surface of the lake and reflected in the windows of the small farmhouse that in the past few years had become the closest thing to a home Eliot had ever had. It was his place of refuge.

He hadn't really felt the need to visit this spot while he had been part of Leverage Consulting and Associates, but now that the days of Leverage were over, he couldn't think of a better place in the world to come home to.

It would have been a perfect evening for drinking some beers down by the lake and waiting for the fish to bite, but right now it was going to take all his energy just to to drag his beaten and bruised body up to the house. His lungs were burning, every muscle and bone in his body hurt and all he wanted was to take a long hot bath together with his best friend Jack...Daniels.

He didn't even know why he had taken the job since it had been labeled as a goatfuck right from the start. It's not that he needed the money but ever since the team had split up he had found himself restless and edgy, edgier than usual that is. Letting off some steam and getting paid good money for it hadn't sounded like such a bad plan. In the end it had turned out to be a very bad idea and the job could have gotten him killed. He had been a really lucky bastard to get away with just a shiner, a deep cut above his right eye, a slight concussion, six bruised or maybe broken ribs and countless contusions and sprains.

When he finally saw the silhouette of the house in the fading light of the day he couldn't help but feel something that came pretty close to relief. Relief to still be alive and to still have something like a home, even if no one was there waiting for him with a few packs of ice and a cool beer, some popcorn and a good movie. He wouldn't admit it if somebody asked him, but he really did miss the gang, especially the crazy little blond thief who tended to get on his nerves. She was probably having a jolly good time with Hardison he thought and then tried to ignore the surprising pang of jealousy he suddenly felt.

Eliot dropped his duffel bag, not even trying to suppress the wince that escaped his lips, and pulled out the keys. The little hairs on his forearm suddenly stood up and he wasn't alone. He let out a curse and quickly spun to the right, already in full combat mode.

"Easy there, big boy!", a female voice, he knew too well, told him.

"Parker..." He tried his best to sound vexed, but somehow her name came out as a surprised whisper.

Parker was sitting cross-legged on the old oak porch swing, staring up at him. She didn't seem surprised in the slightest by his appearance, but she had also seen him in worse states than this. He lowered his fists and gave her his best scowl, which considering his injuries, wasn't an easy thing to do. Parker of course didn't even seem to notice his efforts to make her go away with just the power of his death glare, she just continued to stare at him.

Usually the staring would have annoyed the hell out of Eliot, but not tonight. He was too exhausted and in too much pain to call her crazy or trade heated banter. He also knew that she must have turned heaven and hell upside down to find him and he really had to give her some kudos for that. So he simply turned around and unlocked the door. She did seem to have at least a spark of decency in her because she had waited for his arrival outside his house.

He held the door wide open and Parker quickly got up from the swing, took her backpack and also grabbed his duffel bag and slipped in to the house.

He let out a deep sigh and maybe even a little curse and followed her through the door. Of all the people, Parker had been the last person he'd expected to pay him an unexpected visit and even though she had the habit of annoying him to no end - the girl definitely knew how to push his buttons all wrong - he had to admit that her visit wasn't that unwelcome. He was quite surprised to notice that he actually was really happy to see her.

She was standing in the dimly lit living room, holding both packs, staring at him again.

This was clearly not how he had imagined his home coming.

"Put the packs down there." He motioned to a wardrobe next to the front door. "There's a guest room, first floor, second door on the left. It has its own bathroom, so if you need to get freshened up..."

Parker dumped their packs right where she was standing and quickly headed upstairs.

"Alright." He mumbled. "I am taking a bath...might take a while...NO lock picking!" Eliot said in a louder voice, but the last three words he kind of yelled and Parker would have to be deaf not to have heard them. He didn't bother to wait for a reply and quickly grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniels and locked himself in the master bathroom.

As he lowered his beaten up body into the glorious heat of the hot bath, he couldn't help but sigh in pleasure and wince in pain at the same time. He didn't even try to drink the golden liquid in small sips.

The whisky burned down his throat and created a nice warm feeling in his stomach. Then he leaned back, put a cold damp cloth over his eyes and allowed himself to relax for the first time in days.

He didn't know how long this blissful time of doing nothing and thinking nothing lasted, he just knew it was way too short. He heard little clicking noises coming from the door and he saw the doorknob slowly moving.

"PARKER! Go away!" He yelled, quickly trying to cover his manly parts with the cloth that just had been covering his eyes seconds before.

"I thought you had drowned." Parker's mumbled voice came from the other side of the door. The clicking noises having stopped, thank goodness, he thought.

Drowned? He shook his head in annoyance. "I am a good swimmer!"

A surprised "Oh!" was her answer, followed by a short silence which he didn't really trust. He kept a watchful eye on the door, especially the doorknob and just when he thought that she had found something else to keep her occupied, he heard her snort, "But you can't swim in a bath tub, silly!"

He rolled his eyes. "Leave me alone, Parker!"

"What if you drown?"

"Damn it, Parker!"

"What if you fall asleep and drown?" The clicking noises were back.

"Okay, okay! I surrender!" Eliot shouted and smashed his fist into the water. "Just stop picking the lock! I'll be out in five minutes!"

The doorknob slowly turned.

"Three...I'll be out in three minutes!" He said in a slightly panicked voice as he stood up and tried to get out of the tub as quickly as he could.

The doorknob returned to its former position.

He got dressed in under one minute, an old pair of blue jeans and a blue-white stripped shirt would have to do. He didn't even bother to put on socks or shoes.

Eliot practically stormed out of the bathroom to find Parker sitting on the armrest of one of his living room chairs. He stood there staring at her, his hair still damp from the bath and his shirt hanging open and unbuttoned. He had every intention of throwing her out of the house, but as he saw her there, sitting with that eager smile and those two braids that were framing her face, not a word left his lips.

Yes, Eliot Spencer, who never had been a man of great words, but who most of the time always had some snarky remark on his lips, was speechless and it wasn't because of Parker's nice smile or her silly braids that made her look younger. It was because of her light summer dress that she put on while he was taking a bath.

The dress clung to her petite figure and accentuated her soft curves and for the first time he didn't see the crazy, fearless thief, but the stunningly beautiful woman that Parker was.

"I am glad you didn't drown!" She said with a huge grin that lit up her face. He had a feeling that she really meant it and that knowledge somehow created a warm fuzzy sensation in the pit of his stomach.

He cleared his throat. "Yeah, well...I told you, I could swim." He managed to say, while his mouth broke into a smile too that didn't even hurt that much.

Parker snorted again and then they were back to staring at each other. The whole staring thing suddenly wasn't that annoying anymore and they shared a moment of comfortable silence. He couldn't help but notice, that it felt really nice to have her here in his house.

The staring contest ended as Parker's gaze slowly wandered down to his unbuttoned shirt and he suddenly became aware of the fact that he was standing in front of her pretty much bare chested. Now it was her turn to clear her throat. He could have sworn he saw the briefest hint of a blush on her cheeks.

He quickly buttoned up his shirt and then ran his fingers through his wet hair.

"What are you doing here, Parker?" he asked, not knowing what else to say.

She stared at him quizzically as if to search for the right answer to his question.

"I wanted to visit you?"

He raised one of his eyebrows.

"Okay. I got bored and wanted to visit you." She was playing with one of her braids now and swinging her bare feet back and forth. He couldn't help but notice the toned muscles in her calves that swayed distractingly.

"Why didn't you steal something then and go visit somebody else...like Hardison?"

"Maybe I am working on stealing something right now!" She beamed at him and they were both fully aware that she had completely ignored the mention of Hardison's name.

"You know, I don't keep my money here and I really don't think that you'll find anything valuable in this house, but feel free to take anything you like!" He said in a somehow chivalrous tone as he slowly walked past her to sit down on the couch. She turned to face him and told him in a conspiratorial tone, "Maybe I'll take you up on that offer later." Then she stood up and had of course nothing better to do than to sit down next to him, her thigh and knee slightly touching his. Why did she always have to sit next to him?

In the beginning this had really annoyed him, but he had slowly gotten used to it and he sometimes had caught himself missing the nearness of her, when she hadn't sat next to him during meetings.

The sweet familiar scent of her perfume reached his nose and he allowed himself to inhale it deeply and of course she had to notice. Parker gave him a curious look and said, "I stole the recipe for this perfume in India. It smells nice, doesn't it?"

Eliot nodded. "Yes, it does."

He tried to put a little bit more space between them by moving over. He let out an audible and painful gasp when he brushed his bruised ribs against the armrest of the couch which only resulted in them sitting closer than before.

"I have some ice packs prepared for you in the kitchen." Parker stated as if it was something she did on a daily basis. Well, back when they were all still a team, there had always been ice packs there for him, he just hadn't thought that it was Parker who always had some in store, he always assumed that it had been Sophie.

"Tha...that's really very nice, Parker." Eliot stuttered and made an attempt to escape to the kitchen but she stood up and was following right on his heels. "I also brought us some things to eat!"

He recognized the "us" not "you" and couldn't help but smile, she really must have been pretty sure that he would let her in.

Eliot couldn't believe his eyes, there on the kitchen counter were lots of vegetables, a package with at least four steaks, eggs, milk, butter, jam, honey, green apples, red apples, popcorn, a six pack of beer, a bottle of red wine and even a bottle of Jack Daniels...and fortune cookies. She surely couldn't have had all that hidden in one backpack. He looked around and found another backpack lying empty on the counter next to the sink.

"Whoa!" was all he managed to say. He didn't bother to ask when exactly Parker had brought in the second backpack, she was an expert in breaking and entering after all.

"You like to cook. You eat a lot." She shrugged.

He picked up the package of fortune cookies. "Fortune cookies? I am not really a fan of them." He laughed and made a fake attempt to throw them away but Parker lunged forward and whipped them out of his hands.

"That's my breakfast!"

"So you are planing to stay the night?" Eliot asked her and what should have been a teasing question somehow created a whole new atmosphere. His gaze suddenly dropped to her cute pink toenails while her gaze was automatically drawn to his broad and muscular chest that was plainly visible beneath the material of his old shirt. Suddenly the room was filled with a tension that was nearly palpable and this time Parker wasn't the only one who blushed.

The evening was getting weirder and weirder indeed, he thought. His gaze had roamed to the small swell of her breasts that were covered by the thin material of her sundress and try as he might, he couldn't look away.

Parker turned around quickly and tore the fridge open, grabbing two ice packs and handing one to Eliot while she pressed the other onto her neck. "Phew, it suddenly got pretty warm in here, huh?"

Eliot put the ice pack on his forehead, but he could have thought of a better place for it right now.

The question right now was, what was she doing here, in his house, wearing a dress like that, that barely left anything to the imagination.

His eyes were resting on her hips now and no matter how much he flinched he couldn't see any sign of a panty. Holy Christ! Focus, Eliot, focus! He thought and pressed the ice pack even closer to his forehead.

After the team had separated he had often thought about the others, and even been tempted to get in contact with Nate to see how everyone was doing and to make sure that nobody was in trouble.

He knew Parker who could take good care of herself but who also has the stupid habit of to talking before thinking, which had caused her quite a few troubles in the past already.

He wasn't ready to admit why but he just wanted to make sure she was alright. He had always postponed making the call because he honestly hadn't wanted to find out that Hardison and Parker were hanging out together on a secluded Caribbean Island.

He cleared his throat. "I thought Hardison would have found you by now."

"Why would he?" Parker simply stated.

He raised one eyebrow and removed the ice pack from his forehead and put it above the knuckles of his right hand. "Because he kind of said that he was going to look for you."

She gave him an odd look. "Maybe he hasn't looked hard enough."

"But he's good...very good at what he does."

"Maybe I didn't want to be found." She dropped her ice pack in the sink and then looked right back at him, "Just in case you haven't noticed, I am also very good at what I do." Parker pouted and it was clearly time for a change of topic.

"You hungry?"

She nodded.

"Alright, then let's get to work!" Eliot smiled and began to sort through the pile of food that she had brought with her. "I am afraid that you'll have to help me with the cooking though..." He held up both his hands to show her his swollen and bruised knuckles.

* * *

"Easy there!" He intervened as Parker pulled the biggest knife out of the knife block. "Why don't you go and wash the vegetables first?"

"No Parker, you're doing it wrong." He told her as he stepped behind her. She ignored him and went on chopping the carrots into huge chunks.

"Parker!"

She stopped, rolled her eyes and wordlessly handed him the knife.

"Here, you have to hold it this way." He carefully placed the knife back in her hand, showing her how to hold it while he held her hand in his and began to cut the carrots in small pieces. "See?"

"Mmmhhh." Parker replied and concentrated on the cutting, while he suddenly became aware of the small of her back that was pressed against his chest. A few blonde strains had escaped her braids and they created small curls at her neck.

The silken, creamy skin of her neck was very enticing with his lips just inches away now. She was so very tempting. With his hands resting on her hips, he lowered his head and...Parker chose exactly that moment to turn around and, "Is this right..."

Their heads collided with a CRACK and instead of Parker's lovely neck he saw stars. Lots and lots of stars.

"ARGH!" He heard Parker shout and he just managed a suppressed "JESUS..."

He opened his eyes again to see how Parker was, but she had vanished from his line of sight. He lowered his head and found her sitting on the floor where she was holding her head in both of her hands, which were resting on her tucked up knees. Eliot slowly sank down next to her, wincing.

"Hardison was so wrong!" she told him.

"Pardon me?"

"It's not your balls that are made of steel!"

Even though it felt as if a whole drumming band was marching from his left temple to his right and back again, he couldn't help but laugh. Parker looked at him as if he had completely lost his mind but it seemed as if his laugh was contagious because suddenly she was giggling too.

Of all the scenarios of how he could have possibly spent his evening, the one of him sitting on the kitchen floor...in his house...together with Parker, laughing their asses off, hadn't appeared even in his wildest dreams. Of course he had sometimes allowed himself to imagine how an evening with Parker would be and he always thought that them being alone together would have had a touch of weirdness, but strangely enough, this very real evening that he was spending with her, didn't even feel a bit weird.

Actually, it felt quite good.

* * *

They somehow managed to finish cooking after all and enjoyed a delicious dinner outside on the back porch. It was a mild late summer night and after they had put away the dishes, they just sat there staring out in the moonlit darkness while he enjoyed his beer and she sipped at her glass of red wine.

"I stole the Hope diamond." She said out of the blue.

"Uhm...Congratulations!"

"I brought it back."

"Excuse me?"

"I brough it back." She repeated, extra slowly this time.

"Why would you do something like that?" He knew that she was crazy, but this was a bit too much, even for Parker, who loved money and diamonds more than anything in the world.

Parker shrugged, "I got bored." He felt her shiver a bit.

"Are you cold? We should go in." He made an attempt to get up but Parker took his hand, held it up a bit and snuggled up to him. "No, it's okay."

He would have never admitted it to her, but having her this close to him was nice, more than nice.

They sat in silence for a while as he felt the constant beat of her heart against his chest. He faintly heard her whisper something.

"What?"

"Imissedyou." The words where said in such a rush that it took him a little while to really decipher what she had just told him.

He didn't know what to say.

"I missed you too."

Well his mouth or maybe his heart obviously did know better. He was a bit shocked by his own words but before he could make excuses Parker took his face in her hands and planted a shy kiss on his lips. He didn't react at first but he quickly came to his senses when she tried to pull away.

He drew her close to him and kissed her back fiercely. Parker climbed on his lap and straddled him, never breaking their lip contact. He let his hand slide down her back to the firm roundness of her ass and pressed her tighter to his crotch. She opened her legs a bit wider and grinded herself against his hardened length that was restrained in his tight jeans. A soft moan escaped his lips as she gently began to rock back and forth. "Parker," he moaned and she stopped. Their foreheads touched and they were both breathing heavily.

This was completely and utterly crazy, he thought as he let his tongue slip into her mouth, she tasted of red wine and apple pie. He knew that they should stop but when her hands quickly opened his shirt and began to travel up and down his chest, he also knew that he couldn't, not any more. The temptation was too sweet and they had already crossed a line where going back wasn't an option any more.

"Hold on tight." Eliot told her, as he put his arms around her waist and stood up. Parker wrapped her long legs around him and let him carry her into the house.

He gently placed her on his bed, trying his best to suppress a wince of pain. She looked beautiful with her rosy cheeks and swollen lips. He began to undo her braids and to disentangle her hair. Then he bent down to plant tiny kisses from her ear to her throat and over to her shoulders while his right hand traveled up her thigh until he reached her...non existent panties. Sweet Lord, this woman was driving him crazy, a very good kind of crazy that is! He began to stroke and caress the sensitive flesh of hers. Now it was Parker's turn to moan his name.

It didn't take them long to get completely undressed and after Eliot had quickly pulled on a condom, Parker opened her legs widely and welcomed him her. He entered her with one swift movement, then he waited for her to adjust to him and began to move gently in and out. Their bodies quickly found a common rhythm and when they were on the verge of their climax, Parker put her hands on his ass to push him even deeper into her. "God...Parker...love you." Eliot moaned when he reached the height of passion together with her.

So this was what people meant, when they talked about getting fucked into oblivion, he thought as his senses slowly returned to him. He didn't know if he had really said what he thought that he had said. He opened his eyes and looked at Parker to see if there was any sign that she might have heard it, but she just laid there with her eyes closed, breathing heavily. Her glorious naked body was covered in a small layer of sweat and he just couldn't resist licking the area around her belly button. Parker stirred a bit and began to giggle.

"That tickles!"

She tried to squirm away, but he held her in place and as his tongue moved lower her giggles were replaced by moans of pleasure.

* * *

The sun was already high up in the sky when he finally woke up. He couldn't remember the last time he had slept that long. Usually he didn't sleep more than three or four hours a day, sometimes just 90 minutes, but those things he had done with Parker until the early hours of the day, clearly had taken a toll.

Parker.

He could hardly believe it. He had had sex with Parker of all people. If he were honest with himself, it hadn't just been sex...it had been something more. But he couldn't name it right now. He always had felt attracted to her, but he had tried to ignore it and calling her crazy and arguing with her had made it easier for him to be around her and to not get distracted by her. He also had always thought that she had a thing for Hardison, which now he could see was obviously not the case.

He reached out to pull her closer to him but found nothing but empty space. He sat up quickly, wincing with pain and scanned his bedroom. Her dress was lying on the floor right where he had dropped it the night before but Parker was nowhere in sight.

Eliot put on some boxers and went up to the guest room. The bed was untouched. Her backpack was gone. He rushed into the kitchen and there next to an empty bag of fortune cookies he found a short note.

_I took you up on your offer and took something that didn't belong to me._

_Sorry._

_Parker._

Eliot cursed and rammed his fist into the kitchen wall, causing the barely healed wounds on his knuckles to start bleeding again. He sucked the blood away and tried to convince himself that this was all for the best. This way they had avoided the awkward morning after situation. But DAMN IT for once he would have wanted a morning after and he was sure that there would have been nothing awkward about it. Quite on the contrary, they would have had an amazing morning with another few hours of mind-blowing sex then they would have gone down to to the lake to enjoy a late breakfast and maybe done some more crazy things after that.

Eliot shook his head angrily while he read Parker's note again. She hadn't just left, but had also stole something. He crumpled the paper in his hand and threw it across the room. "Peachy. Just fucking damn peachy!"

He grabbed the bottle of Jack Daniels that she had brought with her and headed down to the lake. Neither the hot and burning sensation of the whisky that was running down his throat nor the warm beams of sunlight that were stroking his tanned skin were able to make the empty feeling, that was situated in the area of the chest where his heart was supposed to be, go away.

* * *

At that time when Eliot found her note, Parker was already on a plane to Vienna. She had her head buried in her hands and muttered, "Oh my, oh my, oh my."

"Excuse me.." The stewardess began, but quickly decided to move on, when Parker's head shoot up "WHAT?"

Parker returned to her former position, trying to shut out the world. She had gone to Eliot because she had missed him, more than she had thought she would. She knew that she often got on his nerves but that he was never really mad at her had led her to the conclusion, that he must like her too, at least a little bit. And chances were that he might miss her too, so a little visit couldn't do any harm.

"Right." She mumbled.

* * *

_When she saw his farmhouse that was settled near a lake, her breath had been taken away. It was beautiful. It looked like one of her childhood fantasies. It looked like a real home. A house you look forward to returning to. No wonder Eliot uses it as his refuge._

_She would have thought that he would have installed at least a little security in his house, but there wasn't even an alarm system and the locks were like an invitation for everybody to just pick them._

_She knew she should have waited for him to come home before entering his house. It would have been the polite thing to do, but politeness and Parker were two different pairs of shoes and she wasn't breaking in to steal something, but to bring something - a backpack filled with lots of stuff that made her stomach grumble just by the thought of it._

_After she had left the food she had brought in the kitchen, she began to stroll through the house. Even though it was simply furnished, it looked very welcoming and cosy._

_There were no signs that Eliot had been there in a while, but according to her informant, his plane had landed an hour ago, so he should be there soon._

_Her last stop had been Eliot's bedroom. A guitar was leaning next to an old leather wing chair that stood next to the open fire place. She took a closer look at the instrument and found a signature by the King himself. She let her fingers softly glide over the strings and while the guitar slowly relapsed into silence again a picture that stood above the fireplace caught her eye._

_It showed a younger Eliot with a huge grin on his face. He was holding Elvis's guitar in one hand and a bunch of keys in the other hand and in the background she could see the farmhouse and the lake. The photograph must have been taken on the day he had bought the house. He looked so happy and relaxed and she knew she had to have this picture. She didn't dare to take it now, but she would definitely come back for it later. Of course Eliot would miss it, she would bring him a copy back, she decided._

_She was already on her way out when her gaze was drawn back to Eliot's bed. The king poster bed looked so inviting that she couldn't resist. She ran to the bed and jumped in. It felt heavenly. She just laid there for a few minutes inhaling the faint scent of Eliot's after shave that was still lingering on his pillow. She imagined how it would feel to wake up in this bed with his arms wrapped around her. Parker gasped and jolted up, she quickly straightened the sheets and ran out of the house as if the devil himself was after her._

_Thoughts like these were forbidden in Parker land. They were unprofessional and only caused troubles. She liked Eliot, maybe even a little more than she would confess to herself, but she didn't do relationships and she wasn't good when it came to interacting with people. She was good at keeping the distance and running away. Eliot though somehow had a magnetic field that always drew her close to him and as much as she had tried to stay away from him, she hadn't really been successful. Why else would she be here now?_

* * *

The plane was shaken a bit by some turbulences and Parker was brought back to reality.

She knew she shouldn't have left that way but he had scared her. He had said the L word. Nobody had ever said that to her and so she had absolutely no clue how to deal with it.

So she did what she did best. Running away.

She even had left the "Happy Eliot" picture behind.

She needed time to think. Time to find out what it meant. Time to find out what she wanted. She would find him again, once she was ready. She just hoped that he wouldn't hate her.

* * *

After nearly five long months in which he had been traveling around the world pretending to try and find himself, but in which he actually had been looking for Parker, he had finally accepted the fact that he would never see her again.

So when the team was brought back together, he was happy to be back with the guys on the one hand but also very irritated, angry and even a bit scared on the other hand. He didn't know how he should act and he was afraid how Parker would react when she saw him again. But she was back being the old Parker, the Parker who hadn't slept with him. She didn't make any attempts to get him alone to talk, which was what every other woman would have done in her situation. But as he knew already, Parker wasn't like other woman. Parker was Parker. Crazy, fucking beautiful Parker. That's why he decided to play it cool; to act as if nothing had happened between them. And somehow it worked, even though he felt more attracted to her than ever.

Eliot had also accepted that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't forget the passionate hours that they had shared. What had happened between them was more than just a memory to him, it had been a glimpse of something that could have been great, a glimpse of something that was never gonna going to happen.

He tried his best not to think of that night. He really tried hard not to think about how stunningly she had looked in all her naked perfection and how her lips had felt pressed against his.

Life was much easier when she wasn't around because then he could at least fool himself and pretend that he wasn't thinking about her 24/7.

The thing was, Parker somehow was always around. She was always trying to sit or stand next to him whenever it was possible. And it was slowly driving him insane.

She smiled at him, and even laughed with him and she also seemed to have forgotten the "Do not touch Eliot" policy because she was constantly touching him one way or another. She even dared to poke his elbow - his very bruised and very swollen elbow, for Christ's sake!

He tried to ignore the flirtatious banter that was going on between her and Hardison as best as he could but he couldn't ignore the fire that was burning inside of him and the sexual tension that grew stronger and stronger day by day. More than once he'd purposely got get into a fight just to relieve some of the built up energy. So when he finally met Mikel Dayan during one of their jobs, he literally welcomed the diversion with open arms. She was the Anti-Parker and that was exactly what he needed. At least that was what he had thought.

He and Mikel had fucked all night long but he hadn't gotten the hoped for relief out of it. Things really just got worse after he heard that Parker had taken Apollo back to her room and they surely hadn't just spoken about birds all night long, even though according to Parker talking was all that had happened that night.

It seemed his plan of exorcising Parker out of his system had completely backfired. Now he couldn't even have casual sex anymore, without thinking about her.

Everything really went downhill when Sophie decided to take a break and go on a quest to find herself because Parker really seemed to miss her. Hell, they all missed her. He was even a bit afraid that Nate might start drinking again.

With Sophie gone, the buffer between him and Parker was gone and avoiding her wasn't an option because that would only raise Nate's and Hardison's suspicion. They had already given him some weird looks when he had pushed Parker away, who had tried to sit next to him during a meeting. But he just couldn't stand the feeling of her body next to his, knowing that another man had touched her and had done things with her that she was only supposed to do with him. He was so fucking jealous even though he knew that he had absolutely no right to feel that way.

So he tried to handle the situation as best as he could, knowing that it was just his damn pride and his hurt ego that prevented him from grabbing Parker and kissing her senseless. He was a man after all and there had been times when his pride had been the only valuable thing that he'd had left in the world and he wasn't ready to give that up yet. Not for a woman. Not even for the woman he loved.

* * *

It was a few months later when Eliot finally forgot all of his pride and sent his ego to hell - of course that meant that Parker had to get shot first.

When he saw her lying there in the hospital bed, with all the tubes attached to her arm, it broke his heart. She looked so pale and fragile. He couldn't believe that they had wasted all those precious months dancing around each other and not talking about that fateful night. Not talking about their feelings.

He just hoped that it wouldn't be too late now.

He carefully took her hand into his and stroked it gently.

"Don't leave me, Parker. Please don't leave me." He pleaded and kissed her fingertips.

He just left her side to go to the bathroom or to take a quick shower, but he made sure that she was never alone, that one of team was always watching over her. Maybe the others found his sudden protectiveness over Parker weird, but none of them uttered a word about it.

After three days Parker finally opened her eyes and when she saw him, she even managed a tiny smile. "Hi."

He just stared at her and his eyes got a bit blurry.

Then he said the words he should have said a long time ago. "I missed you!"

Parker's smile grew wider and she opened her arms, he leaned closer to her and let her arms envelop him in a long embrace.

"And I love you." She whispered in his ear.

Finally she was ready to say those words to him, well she had been ready for a while now, she just had been waiting for him to finally be on the same page with her.

He drew back a little to have a better look at her. "You sure you aren't saying that because you are drugged, darlin'?" He asked her with a sheepish grin.

"I love you." Parker repeated and pulled him into a long hot kiss.

After Eliot had caught his breath again, he sat down on his chair and took her hands into his again. "Parker...," he began. She gave him an expectant look and he cleared his throat.

"Iloveyou!"

"What?"

"I love you!" He said, this time a lot slower and suddenly he felt so immensely relieved and incredibly happy.

Parker softly stroke his cheek. "I know."

They kissed again, unaware of the little audience that was watching them from the door.

"Finally!" Sophie said and smiled at Nate, who took her hand and squeezed it gently.

"Great." Hardison muttered. "Why does this suddenly feel like I am in the middle of an episode of Love Boat?"

"Not in the middle, Hardison! At the very happy ending!" Sophie told him cheerfully.

* * *

Years later, when Eliot and Parker were talking about first loves, first heart breaks and their first night together, he pulled out the short note that she had left him back then and said, "You know, you never told me what you have stolen that night."

Parker just grinned at him, then she put her hand on his chest, right above is heart.

"I stole your heart, silly!"

Their eyes met and he nodded. "It belongs to you for as long as I live." He said in a husky voice, right before his lips captured hers in a passionate kiss.

Next to the "Happy Eliot" picture Parker had once wanted to steal, was now a photograph of a slightly older but even happier looking Eliot. He was standing in front of the old farm house, holding his guitar with Elvis' autograph in the left hand while his right arm was resting comfortably on Parker's thigh.

The very happy ending.


End file.
